February 18, 2019 | 10:05 pm
A BILL reorganizing the
Energy Regulatory Commission and granting it some fiscal autonomy made it past
second reading at the House of Representatives.
House Bill No. 9053, or
the “Energy Regulatory Commission Act,” which was passed via voice vote, calls
for the Commission to be “exclusively responsible for the regulation of the
electric power and energy industry.”
The measure will also
grant the ERC limited fiscal autonomy, which means the regulatory body may retain
30% of its revenue from its collection of fees, licenses, and fines among other
charges.
Of this share, 10% will
be used to augment ERC’s capital outlay (CO) budget, 45% for the maintenance
and other operating expenses (MOOE) budget and the remaining 45% for the
personnel service (PS) budget
The bill also calls for
the ERC to allocate 15% of its total annual approved budget for the training
and upgrading of the skills of its personnel.
The bill is geared
towards “promoting competition in the power and energy sector, and provide
better protection to consumers,” as stated in the Committee Report.
Among others, the bill
proposed to prescribe additional qualifications of the ERC Chairman and its
members, and reorganize the Commission by creating additional offices, six line
services and four oversight committees.
Further, the bill will
prohibit Commissioners and their relatives from holding any interest, either as
investor, stockholder, officer or director, in any company engaged in
electricity generation, transmission, or distribution to the fourth civil
degree of consanguinity. — Charmaine A. Tadalan
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